ROBERT  ERNEST  COWAN 


THE 

POLITICAL   FUGITIVE: 

BEING       A 

BRIEF  DISQUISITION 

INTO    THE 

MODERN   SYSTEM   OF  BRITISH  POLITICS  ; 

AND    THE    UNPARALLELED    RIGOR    OF 

POLITICAL  PERSECUTION: 

TOGETHER   WITH 
SEVERAL  MISCELLANEOUS  OBSERVATIONS    ON  THE 

ABUSES  AND  CORRUPTIONS 

OF  THE 

ENGLISH    GOVERNMENT. 


WRITTEN  DURING  A  VOYAGE  FROM  LONDON  TO  NEW-YORK. 

BY  JOHN  BUTLER, 

AUTHOR  OF  SEVERAL  POLITICAL  TRACTS  IN  ENGLAND. 

WHERE  THERE  IS  NO  KING,  THERE  IS  LIBERTY. 
"  WHERE  THLRE  IS  LIBERTY,  THAT's  MY  COUNTRY." 


RESOLV'D  TO  SEE  COLUMBIA'S  SHORE, 
I  LEFT  BRITANNIA'S  INJUR'D  ISLE  : 
DESPOTIC  LAWS  I  DREAD  NO  MORE, 

NOR   SHALL  MY   PEN   YOUR   HEART   BEGUILE. 


NEW- YORK— M.DCC.XCIV. 

-PRINTED  BY  THOMAS  GREENLEAF,  FOR  THE  AUTHOR, 


To    GEORGE    WASHINGTON. 

SIR, 

NOTHING  can  be  more  gratifying  to 
me,  than  the  pleafure  of  dedicating  a 
portion  of  my  labors  to  a  character  of  your 
eminence,  dirtinguimed  as  you  are  in  the 
political  world  by  an  uniformity  of  your 
patriotic  reftitude,  and  a  faithful  difchargc 
of  thofe  important  duties  to  which  you  have 
been  called  by  the  voice  of  a  free  people — 
the  impartial  fyflem  of  the  American  go 
vernment,  and  the  equitable  frame  of  her  le- 
gillation,  are  fuch  as  puts  cenfure  to  defi 
ance,  and  the  moil  infidious  defpot  to  filence. 

CO 

I  am  neither  addicled  to  adulation  or  ful- 
£5  fom  flattery,  yet  I  cannot  but  exult,  with  a 
g  joy  of  unaffected  purity,  on  the  numerous 
^  bleflings  refulting  to  the  American  States, 
g  under  the  fmiles  of  your  aufpices. 

C9 

t_ 

Being  early  initiated  into  thofe  principles, 
In  which  you  have  fo  eminently  fignalized 
the  valor  and  virtue  of  a  true  republican, 
I  rejoice  atthepriviledge  of  laying  this  efTay 
at  your  feet,  as  an  oblation  offered  upon  the 
altar  of  liberty  and  equality. 

Pofterity  will  look  back  with  veneration 
on  the  name  of  Wafkington,  as  the  fecondary 


IV 


iburce  from  which  republican  liberty  deriv 
ed  its  energy.  We  know  of  few  nations 
which  have  not  experienced  their  revoluti 
ons,  and  changes  of  government,  by  the 
fate  of  war. — May  the  wifdom  of  your  coun- 
fel  ftimulate  the  united  Americans  to  pre- 
ferve,  inviolate,  that  freedom  they  now  en 
joy  ;  and  may  they  long  continue  to  parti 
cipate  in  the  bleflings  of  mutual  laws,  re 
ciprocal  government,  and  impartial  legiila- 
tion,  which  arethedazling  lyrnbols  of  liber 
ty  and  freedom. 

Convinced  that  liberty  is  no  exemption 
from  labor  or  induftry,  but  is  a  powerful  in 
centive  to  both — fo  in  all  free  nations  there 
muft  be  hewers  of  wood  and  drawers  of  wa 
ter  ;  and  it  appears  the  efTential  duty  of  the 
whole  community  of  republicans,  to  unite 
their  efforts  in  ere6lin£  the  plain,  but  mag- 

•r    •  JT  r          6i-          r  b 

nmcient  edifice  ot  equality,  as  a  monument 
facred  to  Liberty  and  the  freedom  of  conscience. 

Thefe  are  the  fentiments  of  a  fugitive 
who  has  emigrated  from  the  fevere  rigor  of 
political  persecution,  to  avoid  the  crufhing 
power  of  haughty  rulers,  under  whofe  def- 
potifm  the  thunder  of  anarchy  roars  from 
pole  to  pole.  Storms  and  tempefts  (hock 
the  affrighted  villager.  The  rapacity  of 
kings  and  courtiers  fhed  alike  their  fedition 
and  their  defolation :  They  plunge  their  fa- 


V 


brcs  into  die  blood  of  innocence.  Contending 
for  power,  they  transform  liberty  into  ila ve 
ry  ;  and,  by  their  intrigue  and  fubtlety,  in 
veigle  their  fubjecls  into  vaifalage. 

To  fee  Europe  tranquilized  by  a  fpeedy 
adoption  of  thofe  principles  which  infpire 
men  with  the  facred  love  of  liberty — to  fee 
the  fabre  of  defpotifm  arreiled  from  the 
hands  of  tyrants— to  fee  thrones  leveled 
with  the  earth's  fmooth  furface — and  to  fee 
liberty  reign  paramount,  is  the  fervent  pray 
er  of 

A  devoted  Advocate  for  the 
Caufe  of  Liberty, 
JOHN  BUTLER. 

New-York,  Sept.  14,  1793. 


PREFACE. 


HOWEVER  powerful  the  influence  of  va 
nity  may  operate  upon  the  human  mind,  it 
has  neither  dazied  my  hopes,  nor  flattered  my 
expectation,  that  ever  England  will  honor  this 
publication  with  a  fecond  edition.  The  princi 
ples  upon  which  it  is  written,  are  too  pure  and 
independent  to  be  patronized  by  courtiers,  or 
encouraged  by  the  abettors  of  defpotifm.  Its 
contents  would  rather  fubjeft  me  to  the  vindic 
tive  virulence  of  ariflocracy,  than  ingratiate  me 
in  the  favor  of  princes.  I  am,  however,  of  opi 
nion,  that  were  it  crammed  with  fulfome  par.yge- 
rics  on  the  king  of  England  and  his  minifters,  or 
fwelled  with  idle  encomiums  upon  the  Britifh 
conftitution  and  government,  though  executed 
in  the  mod  vulgar  ftyle,  it  would  be  gracioufly 
received  as  a  valuable  teftimony  of  honor  and 
loyalty,  and  my  labour  would  be  rewarded  with 
either  a  penfion  or  a  finccure.  But  as  I  ever  hold 
facred  the  principles  of  immaculate  truth,  con 
vinced  that,  to  that  oracle  alone  every  individual 
fhould  facrifice  the  produfclion  of  his  abilities, 
I  never  felt  the  leaft  propenfity  to  apoftatife  prin 
ciple  to  the  advancement  of  a  pecuniary  intereft, 
or  to  gratify  characters  who  never  had  the  gene- 
rofity  to  reward  merit  at  their  own  expence.  The 
moft  wretched  productions  that  ever  teemed  from 
a  prefs,  or  difgraced  a  nation  profeffing  to  be 
free,  have  recently  appeared  in  England,  under 
the  fanclion  of  government,  ftuck  up  on  churches, 
(tables,  barn  doors,  and  turn-pike  gates,  in  the 


Vll 

form  of  a  king's  proclamation,  with  treafon,  cri 
minality,  and  profecutions,  annexed  to  the  guil 
ty  and  obftinate  fubjcft,  who  fhould  dare  to  re- 
piv.  Thefe  were  viewed  with  filent  reluclance  by 
a  number  of  able  patriots  who  were  wearied  out 
in  advocating  the  caufe  of  liberty.  Their  phi- 
lanthropy  were  rewarded  with  criminal  profecu 
tions,  their  virtues  branded  with  ignominy  and  dif- 
grace,  and  themfelves  and  families  hurled  into  the 
mod  inextricable  fcenes  of  wretchednefs  and  ruin. 
Human  patience  is  nearly  arrived  at  its  laft  ftage; 
the  mind  of  man  can  no  longer  endure  fuffoca- 
tion ;  the  chains  of  defpotifm  muft  foon  be 
broken,  and  man  rnuft  neceflarily  inherit  his  na 
tive  freedom. 

Terrified  at  the  rapid  ftrides  of  growing  tyran 
ny,  which  rears  its  monftrous  creft  in  England,  I 
became  fearful  of  my  own  perfonalfafety,  and  being 
unwilling  to  offend  the  haughty  powers  that  rule 
with  defpotic  fway  (though  perfectly  difgulled  at 
their  barbarous  fyftems  of  innovating  policy)  I 
refolved  to  leave  my  country  to  her  defperate 
fate,  and  flee  to  the  protection  of  republican  pa- 
triotifm. 

On  my  migration  from  England,  I  had  not  the 
molt  diftant  intention  of  writing  a  book  of  any 
kind,  until  fome  time  after  my  landing  in  Ame 
rica  ;  but  finding  myfelf  exceedingly  awkward 
without  fome  kind  of  amufement,  and  being 
willing  to  occupy  the  dull  hours  of  a  tedious 
Voyage  to  fome  purpofe,  I  repaired  to  my  birth, 
and  refolved  on  felefting  a  few  fcattered  thoughts, 
with  a  view  of  committing  them  to  the  prei's  on 


